Pretty As A Princess

I will now take a break from my riveting vacation posts to showcase truly frightening pictures of my youngest chicklet.

See.....told you.

Recently while on a trip to Target to spend Megan and Jackson's birthday money, Sadie pleaded for real make-up of her very own. While in Utah she received a Princess Magic Mirror from Grandpa Marty for her room, and was convinced that the sole purpose of the mirror was so she could apply her make-up. So the make-up was purchased.

Sade's has a fairly even-handed application approach. The same can't be said for Jackson who turned my baby Sade into this version of Gene Simmons:

  

Steaming

While visiting Utah we always make time to visit some hot springs.  Last year we visited Riverdale, but this year we decided to steam ourselves at Crystal Hot Springs. Hot springs can be slightly disgusting if you dwell on them, but I choose not to dwell, but rather enjoy.

Megan and Jackson spent lots of time going down the tube slide. I also went down quite a few times, but my legs gave out long before theirs did.

Sade's was a bit cantankerous for a while, but after lunch made a recovery and enjoyed herself.

And then, surprising everyone, especially me, I asked her if she wanted to me to throw her so she would go underwater. She responded with, "sure". What???? I have no idea what came over her. The throwing eventually evolved into her swimming (UNASSISTED) underwater between my mom and I. This is the girl who just the week before would not even participate in swimming lessons, and now she is a full-fledged underwater swimmer! Bizarre.

After arriving home, I quickly got ready to meet my dear friend Kate for dinner. After dinner we lived out some of our high school glory days and went for steamers.

While in high school, I consumed one of these white hot chocolate steamers at least 5 days a week. Seriously. Luckily my metabolism rocked back then.

I Came, I Saw, I Fished

On our second day in Logan we went fishing!

The kids had been practicing casting with Grandpa Ken the day before so they would be adequately ready for the adventure.

Megan was a crazy, fisherwoman, fool! She caught something like 6 fish in 45 minutes.

Jackson and Sadie also managed to reel in one each.

Last year Sadie was none too keen on touching fish. But this year, she turned over a new gill, and had no reservations.

She was so happy and proud of herself.

We ended up catching our 8 fish limit in about an hour. The poor lady fishing about 20 feet from us, only caught one fish in 4 hours! I would have been quite angry with us if I was her.

Later that afternoon, we went and saw Cars 2. Jackson had been dying to see it all week. I found it boring, and fought off sleep throughout. After seeing the picture below in the movie theater, Sade remarked,

"That must be a Jesus movie."

After dinner, we went back over to Eric's Grandpa's house to see him one more time, and to say goodbye to Eric's parents who were leaving the next day.

USU & The Zoo

We woke up leisurely on our first day staying with my mom. We had planned to visit Utah State to walk around, and to buy a license plate frame for my car. And.....to have lunch at my very favorite bread place that is on campus. Well, we were a bit late and arrived at 2:10 p.m. Only to discover that the bread place closes at 2 p.m. during the summer! Crushing. I did however manage to buy the frame. Yippee. And we also were able to do quite a bit of walking around.

We visited the famous Aggie "A". It was under construction, and thereby a bit lackluster.

Or "lame" as the kids informed me. The legend is that you are not a true Aggie unless you kiss over the "A" on the night of Homecoming, or during a full moon. I am not a true Aggie. However, once getting home I discovered that Eric is! The nerve!!!!

Since we missed having bread, we had the next best thing: Aggie Ice Cream, for lunch. Did I mention that it was the second day in a row we had ice cream for lunch? Seize the day!

After dinner we took a trip to Willow Park Zoo. I love it there. It's basically perfectly shaded goodness.

We then went home, had our nightly Popsicle (or 2) while sitting outside, and went to bed!

Bear Lake - Day 1

We arrived in Bear Lake Sunday evening. Before having dinner we made a quick trip down to the lake.

Before leaving I told the kids we were not going to get in the lake. Obviously no one listened.

The lake is super high this year, and almost all of the beaches are covered in water, due to the extreme amount of rain Utah has had. It was strange to see trees halfway covered in water, that last year were on dry ground.

Sadie told her uncle Derek that if he would take her out to that tree, she would give him 5 bucks.

So he did. When he asked her where his five dollars was, she replied, "I must have forgotten my wallet."

Our family and Dustin's family.

Dustin, LeAnne, Derek and Eric

The kids ended up soaking wet, so we called Grandpa to come and take them all home in the back of his truck.

Sadie couldn't stop smiling at her luck!

See posts about days 2 and 3 below.......